Jive Junction (1943)

Synopsis
by Hal Erickson

With a title like Jive Junction, this just has to be a wartime musical. In one of his few top-billed roles, teenaged actor Dickie Moore plays Peter, a student in a hidebound music conservatory. Rebelling against his old-fogey teachers, Peter organizes an all-girl swing band. When his father dies in the war, Peter overcomes his grief in true Mickey Rooney fashion, converting an old barn into "Jive Junction," a convivial gathering place for lonely servicemen. Much of the footage in Jive Junction is given over to newcomer Gerra Young, a pleasant and attractive singer who unfortunately never clicked in films. This standard B musical was directed by-of all people-cult favorite Edgar G. Ulmer!